Hougham
is located 2 miles from the A1, 8 miles from Grantham, 9 miles
from Newark, 28 miles from Nottingham, 20 miles from Lincoln and 120
miles from London. Grantham is on the East Coast line and London is
under an hour and a half away by train.

In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Hougham like this:

HOUGHAM, a village and a parish in the district of Newark and
county of Lincoln. The village swands on the river Witham, near the
Great Northern railway, 6 miles NNW of Grantham; and has a station on
the railway. The parish comprises 2, 590 acres; and its post town is
Hough, under Grantham. Real property, £4, 027. Pop., 349. Houses, 77.
The manor belonged formerly to the Brudenell family, and belongs now to
Sir JohnThorold, Bart. The living is a rectory, united with the rectory
of Marston, in the diocese of Lincoln. Value, £740.* Patron, Sir.
J.Thorold, Bart. The church is chiefly early English; has Norman
pillars on the S aisle; was recently restored; consists of nave,
aisles, and chancel, with a tower; and contains a handsome screen, and
a figured monumental stone of a Knight Templar.

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I am writing a book on " Lincolnshire During the First English Civil War 1642-46 " and the village of Hougham
is quite famous as the action at your Manor House delayed Col. Rossiter
getting to Naseby which angered Cromwell. The photograph was taken some
years ago. Thank you for your time.
Geoffrey Wildman

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The beauty of the Suns Energy Solar Panel
Funding better than free solar panel scheme is that you can obtain solar panels
and then use the government incentive known as the Feed-In-Tariff to fund the
installation.

With this incentive, it is possible to
achieve combined earnings & savings in excess of £30,000 over 20 years.

Applying now will enable you to lock in
your Feed-In-Tariff rate which will increase over time with the rate of
inflation. The government funding available for renewable energies such as
solar is limited and will soon run out.

TO SECURE YOUR FEED-IN-TARIFF AND EARN TAX FREE INCOME AS WELL AS
GENERATING FREE ELECTRICITY -

Contact the Webmaster on webmaster@hougham.info who will pass on your details to arrange a free no obligation survey by your local energy assessor

Mainland GB only

Churchgoers ‘sickened’ after gang steals lead from churches around GranthamMasonry broken off All Saints Church Hougham while lead was stolen from the roof.

Churchgoers
in the village of Hougham say they are ‘sickened’ following the theft
of a huge amount of lead from their church roof.

Thieves struck
in the early hours of Saturday morning, stripping the lead off the roof
of All Saints and also breaking off large chunks of masonry from the
building, which dates back to the 10th century in its earliest form.

The
Hougham theft is just one of several similar cases reported in recent
days, with churches at Brant Broughton and Aswarby also having their
roofs stripped of lead.

A remembrance service on Sunday had to
be cancelled at Hougham. The church will remain closed until December
11 when Communion will be held.

Hougham church warden Ray Beal
told the Journal that the thieves must have staked out the church
before the theft because they managed to get round the building’s
security system.

The thieves also caused damage inside the church, which was soaking wet as rain got in through the damaged roof.

Mr
Beal added: “It made me feel sick and very angry. Everybody is sickened
by it. I do not think they did this off the hoof. They must have been
round prior to it to work out how to get round the alarm system.”

Mr
Beal said the roof of the church has now been made secure and
waterproof, but added: “Inside the church it was like a lake. All the
wooden seats and the kneelers are wet. I don’t know how long it will
take to dry. Inside it’s like a wasteland.

“Fortunately, we are
insured but I haven’t got a clue how much all this will cost. There is
the question of the masonry as well, which is a job in itself. They
have taken all the lead from the north aisle.”

Inspector Gary
Stewart, of Lincolnshire Police, said: “We are currently investigating
this theft and would like to hear from anyone who saw anything
suspicious near the church during the evening.

“You may have
seen vehicles parked next to it or someone carrying tools as if they
were working on it, or maybe heard sounds coming from the church.

“If
this is the case, please contact Lincolnshire Police by calling 101,
quoting incident number 106 of November 12, and help us catch those
responsible.”

This is not the first time All Saints has been
targeted – thieves struck four years ago, with about £30,000 worth of
lead stolen. Three men pleaded guilty to stealing lead from more than
20 churches in the area.

In this current spate, thieves also
ripped sheets of lead from the north aisle roof of Aswarby Church on
Friday night while parishioners were away at a fund-raising event at
Belton Park Golf Club to supplement a Lottery funding bid to repair the
rest of the roof and the damaged spire.

On CCTV, thieves in two
vans, possibly Mercedes Sprinters, were seen to park up outside
Aswarby, moving in between 3am and 4am to load up the lead, damaging
stonework in the process. Anyone with information should contact police
on 101, quoting incident 99 of November 12.

Parish priest the
Rev Nick Munday said: “All our churches are listed buildings and they
are sacred. Our church has been violated.”

Meanwhile, last
Tuesday night, St Helen’s Church in Brant Broughton was hit in the same
way, losing most of its north aisle roof.

The Rev Alison Healey
said her churchwarden discovered the theft. She said: “She saw chunks
of stone had fallen down and looked up to see most of the north aisle
roof had been taken.

“It has been sheeted over for now, which is all we can do. It is just heartbreaking for parishioners.”

Anybody with information is asked to call 101, quoting incident 80 of November 10.

Hougham and Marston Village Hall

or 07806 869549

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The
sum raised at the Christmas Fayre was a marvellous £2,153.72.
Many thanks to all those who helped and who came and contributed.

Mike's Quality Grimsby Fish

Thursday 0920 am 07763 388397

On
Monday 11th April I, and 4 others witnessed a blue van with Grantham
Removals on the side, speed through Hougham and what is worse overtook
a car travelling at the speed limit, weaving round parked cars while he
did it. I emailed Grantham Removals: "Whether it was you or one of
your so called drivers driving the blue Grantham Removals van through
Hougham just after 6 pm tonight or not, the actions of the driver -
speeding and overtaking a car driving at the speed limit in a narrow
village street were disgusting and dangerous.

There were 5 witnesses to this reckless act."

The owner has replied to me with a cartoon of of a goat on the boot of
a car and the words "Call the cops. I don't give a f**k".

Just a heads up in case anyone is looking to book them to move their personal possessions.

Hougham and Marston Book Club

9th January - The Moth Cathcher by Ann Cleeves - please note this is the 2nd Monday due to the bank holiday

6th February- "The Ice Cream Girls" by Karen Koomson

If interested contact Bernadette Chalklin 01400255076807904083274 BChalklin@AOL.com or turn up on the day at 2 pm. £1 only including tea/coffee

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The Walk4Life website is totally FREE
and has thousands of walk ideas all over the country. The website uses
OS maps which can easily be printed out at home so is proving really
popular. People can also keep a track of the walks they have done and
set themselves a target!

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Now
the badminton court has been re-marked at the Village Hall we're hoping
to revive the old badminton club on alternate Friday evenings.
There will be a charge of £1.50 to cover hire of the hall.

Peter
Connolly and others have formed Marston Karate Club which will meet in
Hougham and Marston Village Hall on Wednesday evenings. If you have
family or friends who might be interested in joining please visit the
Marston village website for more information, or call Peter on 250711.

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Hougham parish councillors Robin Johnson and Robert Scott have been catching speeding motorists along Main Street.

A group of residents and parish councillors have decided to take their
own action against motorists who regularly speed through their village.
Hougham parish councillor Robin Johnson, vice-chairman Robert Scott and
others living in the village have started monitoring those driving up
Main Street with a purchased speed gun.
Despite clear 30mph signs as you enter the road, they have recorded a
high number of motorists driving in excess of the speed limit.
During their first speed check session over six hours on one day in
September, they recorded 172 people driving over the limit.
The worst offender was a motorcyclist clocked driving at 61mph, and
subsequently their details along with others were passed on to police.
This Monday the group were out in force again armed with their speed gun and additional 30mph signs.
After just two hours they reported that 45% of those going past were driving over 30mph, and 9% over 40mph.
Mr Johnson added: “One lady who we clocked going too fast, drove back and said that what WE were doing was illegal.”
The group have received assurances from their local police officer that
they are completely within their rights to do these speed checks.
Moreover they stress that they are only doing it because speeding has long been an ongoing issue affecting their community.
“It comes up at every parish meeting,” said Mr Scott. “The police do
their best, but they have to cover a wide area - this is our way of
helping to tackle the problem.”
The group plan to do more speed check sessions in the future, and are
liaising with Lincolnshire Police and the county’s Road Safety
Partnership about other possible speed enforcement measures.
A spokesman for the Road Safety Partnership has clarified the rules
around the use of speed guns. For a successful prosection, the
equipment must be Home Office type approved, a record of pre-use checks
must be held, the operator must be authorised by the Chief Constable
and trained in speed assessment.
They added that it is not illegal to own the equipment or operate it,
as long as it is not considered a nuisance to road users.

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Photos from the WI Centenary Party held in the Thorold Arms garden on 11 June are on the Marston village website at:

The
issue of mud on the road is one that needs to be investigated before
any action can be taken. Reoccurring instances should be reported to
Lincolnshire Police who have agreed to instigate action under these
circumstances, I have attached some information which may be of some
assistance.

The
overrunning of verges is unfortunately a fairly common issue in rural
locations which is not usually solved by the installation of kerbs.
Within the village of Hougham there are signs of vehicles overrunning
existing kerbs as there is not the lane width for agricultural vehicles
to pass. With this in mind, the installation of kerbs along this
section is something we will investigate as in when resources become
available.

The
biggest pumpkin entered in the Marston Pumpkin Club Show in 2014 was
grown at Hougham and weighed 23 stones. For more information and all
the results please visit the Marston website athttp://parishes.lincolnshire.gov.uk/marston/

Good morning from the South Rural team, we would just like to make you aware of
some theft of lead from two church roofs one in Hougham and one in Westbrook. If
anyone has seen or knows anything please contact 101 or your local NPT team,
thank you

The
syndicate now has 90 members which enables us to increase the number of
orders from 5 to 6 annually whilst hopefully still getting a decent
discount compared with ordering individually. There's an optimum size
of order as too large an order has resulted in some oil companies
refusing to quote because of the disruption that it would cause to
their regular clients if they were successful in gaining the order.

As such, the orders going forward will be at the start of:

July, September, November, January, March, May etc

Ideas for or information about the village website, contact me through the link at the bottom of the page.

I offer
personal email addresses with money to the village church or village
hall (you choose) for example name@hougham.info or business@hougham.info

I am also open to placing adverts for local business on the website as well for a small fee - church and village funds